Cocktail of the month

Following the turn of the century in colonial Singapore, it was common to see the gentlemen nursing glasses of gin or whisky. Unfortunately for the ladies, etiquette dictated they could not consume alcohol in public, and for the sake of public modesty, fruit juices and teas were their preferred beverage. The young Ngiam thus saw a niche in the market and decided to create a cocktail that looked like a fruit juice… The rest, as they say, is history.

Established in 1887, Raffles was once the ultimate holiday residence for the rich and famous. The fashionable décor, tropical gardens and exotic touch appealed to wealthy travellers, and provided a more British respite from it’s South-East Asia location.

The Long Bar Ngiam worked in was equally charming, with illustrations of flapper girls and suited young men adorning the walls. Today’s tourists flock to the bar to stake a claim in the history of a place that played host to Charlie Chaplin, W Somerset Maugham and Noel Coward amongst many other famous faces.